To install Panopto on your non-University Windows computer the same guide, but select “Installing Panopto on a non-University Windows PC” near the end of the article.

Provision a Blackboard course

Each year you will need to activate Panopto within your Blackboard course. This gives you an area within Panopto to make recordings. For each course follow the guide How do I provision Panopto in Blackboard.

Alternative to using a Blackboard course

Everyone has a “My Folder” that they can record Panopto content into. You can record into this folder without provisioning a Blackboard course but no-one, except yourself, will be able to view it.

Panopto is a piece of software and not a piece of physical equipment within the lecture room. To capture the slides and screen it must be installed on the computer of the presenter.

It currently is not possible to bring a laptop without Panopto installed and for it to be automatically captured in a lecture theatre.

Blackboard courses are used to ensure that lectures that are recorded are secured, by default, to the students on the course. By provisioning the Blackboard course you are creating an area in Panopto for your videos that are secured to your class list. As students join and leave your course they will automatically be added and removed from Panopto.

If you are in a lecture theatre there is no need to install Panopto. It’s already in the start menu. If it isn’t there call ServiceLine on 25656 from the phone in the room (calls from lecture theatres are prioritised over calls from mobiles or staff offices).

If you are on a staff PC you should install the software from additional software rather than Panopto. This version has our pre-loader and disables some Panopto services that are incompatible with other pieces of University software.

On your own computer, you can download the software from our Panopto admin website. Don’t attempt to download the Remote Recorder. That software can only be used by iSolutions. You will need admin rights to install the version of Panopto from the admin website.

Blackboard isn’t available

If it isn’t possible to sign in with Blackboard, and only if you cannot sign in through Blackboard, you can record your video offline.

Click on “More sign-in options”

Click on “Continue offline”

Your recording will not upload or process without further steps being taken. Contact ServiceLine (25656) after your lecture for help in uploading your offline recording.

The wrong person is signed in

Click on “Sign out” in the top right-hand corner of the Panopto Recorder. This will sign you out of Panopto and Blackboard.

Primary Source: Audio and Video

Panopto videos must have a primary source. Otherwise, they will never finish processing after the video has uploaded.

From the “Audio” drop-down menu select the microphone you wish to use. If you have just connected a USB headset (or another microphone), it should be pre-selected.

From the “Video” drop-down menu select either your USB webcam (if one is connected) or the B##-R#### Dome Camera (if installed in your lecture space).

The most important step in Panopto is to ensure that your microphone a) works and b) is set to the correct volume.

Speak into your microphone and adjust the recording volume slider so that your voice fills the green bar when speaking at a conversational volume and doesn’t light the last red square when talking loudly.

If you wish to capture the sound coming out of the computer (e.g. capturing the words said by a speaker over Skype), also tick “Capture Computer Audio”. Leave it unticked unless you have a particular reason to capture the audio from the computer.

Audio

Panopto will allow you to record a video without a primary source (the audio). This is because Panopto allows you to use multiple computers to record the same lecture. If you don’t record sound on one computer, it will expect that you are recording it on another. It will then wait indefinitely for you to upload the audio.

It isn’t possible to raise, lower or fix audio problems after the lecture has been recorded. Lots of other Panopto problems can be fixed after the recording ends, but if you don’t record your voice correctly, there are not technical steps that can help. You will need to delete the session.

Video

Panopto can remember the last video source you selected and may also pick a video source if none was chosen. Panopto may choose the wrong video source (for example a webcam rather than a dome camera), so it is worth checking the source is correct.

Wrong microphone

Panopto will automatically select a microphone. If you have a USB webcam, with a built-in microphone, and a microphone on the lectern bench, it may choose the wrong one. Pick the microphone from the drop down list and test it is working by looking for the green bars.

Wrong camera

If the wrong camera is selected, choose the correct one from the drop-down list.

Camera is missing

If you connected a camera while Panopto was open, close it down and re-open the application.

Dome camera is looking the wrong way

Close Panopto and re-open it with the “Launch with camera control” button. When the camera control page loads, press “Home” or “Podium”.

No audio was recorded

Unfortunately, sound issues cannot be resolved after the recording has taken place. It is vital that the right microphone is selected and the audio level checked.

Turning Point is missing

Turning Point (interactive zappers) needs to be loaded before Panopto to ensure the Turning Point features are loaded. This is because Panopto silently loads PowerPoint in the background (without Turning Point) when you open it.

The screen recording or PowerPoint failed

Another reason iSolutions recommends selecting both tick boxes is for redundancy. If one session fails, students will still be able to watch the other.

iSolutions can often (but not always) recover secondary sources when they fail. Give the link to the video, and the room number of the lecture theatre to ServiceLine and the Panopto administrators will try their best to recover it.

Choose your recording folder

Click on the drop-down “Folder” list near the top of the Panopto Recorder.

Select a folder in one of these three ways

If you have recently recorded in your course, select it from the Quick Access area

If your course isn’t in the Quick Access area, select it by navigating through the folder list

Search for your course by typing in the first few characters of its name

If you wish to record into the BIOL3048-20500-16-17 Blackboard course you’ll need to click on the arrows next to “BIOL” then “BIOL3048” then click on the name “BIOL3048-20500-16-17: 16-17-Neurodegenerative Disease-20500”.

If you do not have any Blackboard courses to record into, choose “My Folder” from the Quick Access area.

Pausing

Using the record buttons

There are keyboard shortcuts and PowerPoint options for automatically starting a recording. iSolutions recommends seeing that the recording has successfully begun. Other options will work, but the risk is lower if the Panopto window is visible (to show error messages) when starting the recording.

Recording

By giving you control of when Panopto starts and stops you can be confident that the equipment in the room is not recording your conversations without your consent.

We may, in the future, move to an automated model. If this happens, there will be a visual cue in the room so that students and staff know when a recording takes place.

Pausing

It is helpful to continue recording while paused in case you forget to unpause the session. If you forget to unpause the recording, you can open the Panopto Editor to recover the paused areas.

As a live stream can’t be edited in real time, the pause button is removed to visually remind you that you cannot pause a live stream.

Recording

If you do not have an audio source selected, you will be warned that the recording will fail (unless you are recording audio on another computer)

If you are recording a device (such as a visualiser) that is connected but switched off, the recorder may fail to record and warn you.

If there is a server or network issue when you press record, Panopto should automatically record the session offline and warn you. You will need to inform iSolutions after the lecture to ensure we upload it.

If you do not press the record button, there will be no file to recover.

Pausing

It is not possible to pause during a live stream. A live stream occurs when the “Webcast” button is ticked.

If you forget to unpause a session, you can recover it in the editor.

Uploading

The progress bars show the recording uploading to Panopto. Once the bars disappear, the recording is being processed by the server.

If your material is confidential, you may wish to wait until the upload has completed and select “Delete Local” to remove the local copy of the presentation from computer’s hard drive.

If using a lecture theatre PC, Panopto will continue to upload the presentation even if you log out of the computer, although you should not turn off the computer. If you are not on a lecture theatre PC, you will need to wait for the upload to finish before logging out.

Waiting to upload on a non-lecture theatre PC

In lecture theatres, we understand that time between lectures is at a premium. We, therefore, turn on the background uploading service. However, this service is incompatible with some of our secure software, such as the exam software Perception Secure Browser. To be sure that University exams are not affected, we disable it on our laptops, staff PCs and public workstations.

Uploading in general

The files recorded locally aren’t especially useful for staff or students. The synchronised video is only viewable once the video has processed. If you wanted to upload the video to YouTube (or a similar service), you should upload the video and then download the finished podcast.

Deleting confidential video

If a video fails to upload or process iSolutions will recover the session from the local computer. We, therefore, leave the recordings on the computer. If your recording is confidential, you may decide that it is better to remove the recording than protect yourself against a technical issue.

The video is taking a long time to process

As long as the video is not uploading you do not need to wait for the video to process. It will be in a queue with other videos.

Panopto says the video failed to process

Report the issue to ServiceLine, including the link to the video or Blackboard course and let us know the room number of the lecture theatre.

Blackboard says the video is still uploading after I got back to my office

If you recorded your session in a lecture theatre please report it to ServiceLine; there may be an issue with the background uploading service that needs fixing. If you recorded it on a laptop or staff PC you will need to leave Panopto open while it uploads.